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The Challenge
A thief has been stealing vegetables from the garden, and Doctor Smith sets up an alarm system to catch the culprit. He and Will camp outside and wait, and when Smith’s alarm goes off, they get up to see who’s there. The thief turns out to be a rather aggressive boy who seems to be spoiling for a fight! John and Don come out to question him, and the boy eventually calms down and introduces himself as Quano. Quano challenges Will to a fight and then goes on to insult the women. Maureen offers him supper and a warm place to sleep, but he refuses their offer of hospitality and leaves. The next day, Quano reappears and stares at them. He believes earth people are stupid and weak, especially the females. Quano informs the Robinsons that his father is the Ruler of their planet, and that he himself is a Prince. Doctor Smith gets very excited and starts trying to kiss up to Quano, but the boy will have none of it. Quano invites Will to go hunting with him, and Will agrees. As they walk, Will stops to examine rocks and Quano makes fun of him. Quano informs Will that he has come to their planet to test his strength and bravery. He takes Will to a nearby cave where a monster lurks. Quano calls to the monster so it will they can fight it, but as it comes toward them, Quano trips on a rock and is injured. Luckily, Quano’s father arrives in time to save them. He commends Will for his bravery, and Quano becomes jealous and angry. Later on, Quano and his father come to visit the Robinson campsite. Smith immediately begins his usual begging and bargaining for passage back to earth, but both aliens find him disgusting an d dismiss him. Quano’s father, or “The Ruler,” as he prefers to be called, meets John Robinson and is pleased and impressed by his leadership. The Ruler asks that Will be permitted to compete in a competition with Quano. John refuses, but Will becomes irritated with the other boy’s teasing and accepts the challenge on his own. Maureen doesn’t think it’s a very good idea, but her husband talks her into it. That night, Doctor Smith sneaks over to the alien camp to spy on them. He overhears The Ruler warning his son that he absolutely must beat Will in the competition. It seems that if Quano loses, The Ruler will be forced to destroy Will and his entire family! Smith is horrified and decides that he must ensure Will does not win. The next day Smith starts Will on a strict regiment of exercise. He does so under the ruse of “coaching” the boy, but in reality he is just trying to work poor Will into exhaustion. Don figures out what the doctor is trying to do and puts a stop to it, thinking Smith is just being selfish and cruel. Quano arrives and informs the Robinsons that the challenge will start at dawn. If they fail to arrive, it will be taken as an act of cowardice and a the family will suffer a penalty. Smith tries to bribe Quano into taking him back to earth, but the boy thinks Smith is a traitorous jerk and refuses. When morning comes, Smith, John, Don and Will to go the competition. The challenge begins with a test of strength, in which Quano proves to be the victor. The second challenge is a test of fear, followed by a test of dexterity, and a test of... er... rock crushing. By the time the final challenge comes around, the two boys are tied. Doctor Smith makes one last attempt to ensure Will doesn’t win by trying to convince the boy to throw the contest, but Will won’t go along with it. The Ruler also has a talk with his son. He doesn’t think Quano is doing well enough, and thinks Will is going to win in the last challenge. Since The Ruler really has no desire to have to kill the Robinsons, he insists that Quano back down from the last test and allow his father to enter as a substitute. John substitutes for Will, and the two men duel one another with electric swords. The battle is close, but John wins in the end. The Ruler is unhappy, thinking that now he will have to dispose of the Robinson family, but soon finds he has other troubles when Quano turns up missing. Will says he thinks that Quano was hurt by his father’s lack of trust and has run off to the monster’s cave in order to prove himself a warrior. The Ruler rushes to his son’s side, and they decide to face the monster together. The Robinsons give them their privacy and go back to the Jupiter 2. Background Information *For the stunts performed during the scene with the Volta Blade duel between Professor Robinson and the Alien King, Guy Williams needed no stunt double, as in all episodes involving fencing. Williams, of course, was an accomplished duelist after his time on the tv show Zorro. *The Volta blade apparatus would be reused in a considerable number of later episodes as various forms of alien equipment. *There is a common misconception in the beginning of this episode that Quano's hurled spear shattered the Jupiter 2's viewport due to the crash of glass. The sound was actually the spear crashing to the ground after hitting the set- it would be strange if a spear managed to break the glass which had survived meteor hits. *When Will and Quano are walking along and about to enter the cave, Bill Mumy gets his foot tangled in one of the prop vines on the floor of the set. He shakes it off without missing a beat, and keeps walking. *Yet another warrior alien race is encountered that uses physical combat in order to establish social rank (as in "Hunter's Moon," "The Deadly Games of Gamma 6," and "Follow The Leader.") It seems Earth is unique in the galaxy in using schools, written tests, elections, debates, and the other rules of participatory government *Features the first occurrence of the Robot's laughter, that which he says is "only his computers being cleared" when Dr Smith asks what else "do we have to do" for work. *Goofs - During Professor Robinson's "Volta Blade" duel with the Leader, he splits a tree in half with his sword. One half of the large tree falls on the cord of his electronic sword, completely trapping it. In the next shot, the cord has come "untrapped" from the tree and is again swinging freely. *Why does John just stand there silently as Quano makes all those rude, sexist remarks to his wife and daughters? *The normally sweet and polite Penny goes absolutely wild on Quano after he makes a chauvinist comment. *Doctor Smith invents an alarm system to catch a thief, and it works perfectly! This surprises me, because in most cases Smith’s projects explode. *So... The Ruler just decided he didn’t have to kill the Robinsons after all? I’m assuming he made that decision when he told his son “There’s no shame in defeat,” but he never directly said that he’d changed his plans. Will training in "The Challenge".jpg Kurt Russell as Quano.jpg Category:Episodes Category:Episodes in Season One